Dylan Waco

Iaukea gets the death bump/regional bump. I have no problem with him going in, but it's sad to see him go in before Colon (at least to me). Walton getting in is really great. He deserved to the be the first Brit candidate elected. Mixed feelings on Dr. Death. Buddy Rose being on the ballot is great even if I think he is liable to drop off without a massive push to voters about his strengths.

Is it at all notable to point out how stale Raw has gotten since Rey left. I think his leaving SD seriously hurt that show as well.

You may be right Cox. Wasn't the issue supposed to hit some time today? Also McAdam got mad over at Classics and bowed out because I "uttered" his "shoot name." Believe it or not it wasn't intentional or done as a troll (I had forgotten he was in hiding as a result of his various "disappearances" with peoples money over the years - i.e. theft). I went ahead and edited it out but it's probably for the best. It really doesn't appear to be possible to even get some people (sadly a lot of whom may be voters) to admit that Blackwell has some positives as a candidate.

Not only that but Dave lobbying harder for people tends to be the up or down for a lot of voters

For anyone who cares my Blackwell thread at Classics has taken a turn for the worse with Farmer (who I generally like) calling Blackwell a "mediocre" draw and another McAdam troll job based on a cherry picking and bizarre interpretation of a two line analysis I made about a single house show in Milwaukee.

Dave has been notified of the error and has refused to correct, acknowledge or even address it so far as I know. That's why I wonder if Senior may not go in as an overlooked figure. Either that or Dave is being stubborn as fuck in not acknowledging an error.

Dr. Wagner Sr. as a possible overlooked historical candidate? Why else would he have been arbitrarily removed from the ballot?

Now that I think about it I would not be shocked at all if Johnny Saint went in.

It was WAYYYYY too long. Finlay looked really great in it and the idea of the match was fine but there was a ton of dead time and filler while they put over the Finlay injured leg story. Too much good stuff in the match to say it "sucked" but it's probably the worst Finlay match I can remember since his comeback.

My guesses? Edge, Sasaki and Dr. Death. I really wish Hans Schmidt was getting in, but I've lost confidence about that over the last month.

If the work prior to the promo stuff was god awful, particularly for guys that age, I can't imagine what would have to have been done for something to even be decent let alone good.

Another random aside on Blackwell but I think he would have made a great heel challenger for Hogan in the WWF. He was loyal to Verne for the push Verne gave him, but he had worked programs in St. Louis and the AWA with Hogan and was sort of a perfect challenger in the mold of "fat immovable object" types. He was also a better worker than Bundy, Andre, Kamala or Bossman. Even as late as 88 they probably could have had some very good matches and my guess is they would have done great business. It's funny in a way because I get the feeling if he had one six month WWF run where he drew well opposite Hogan folks would be far less dismissive of the notion that he is an HoF candidate worth discussing.

I'm certain Matisyk has them as he ran down the figures on all the "booking sheets" shows he did with Gary Cubetta.

The match up until the random promo battle was hardly horrible and in fact was on pace to being a pretty good match.

If I had a vote and his push holds up for the next month and a half I'd probably vote for Henry. Yes he really did nothing of note for the first half of the year but to me is the guy who has made the most out of the push he's had and the position on the card he's been given.

I agree that Punk will definitely win. He's the smart fan hero and that's all that really matters. I think he is a perfectly fine pick in a weak year but he doesn't seem like an obvious pick by any means.

So what metric should we use? Whoever looks the coolest? Whoever is the best promo? Whoever has the best matches?

I can't really argue against this BUT if we have given him credit for years for holding steady essentially, with business seemingly trending down across the board should that note be held against him? Cena is the "default" answer in a way, but I find it hard to build a compelling case for him.

Because it's the only metric we have to use that is concrete.

You are right. I suppose Bret could have sat out, sued Vince, and been tied up in litigation for years...or he could have gone to WCW for immediate guaranteed money. The indisputable, inarguable fact is that Vince signed Bret to a 20 year deal, then backed out of it and told Bret to go to WCW. That fact that Vince didn't want/think he could honor the contract is totally irrelevant. A contract is a contract. That Bret didn't sue Vince is if anything a further indication that Bret is the "good party" in this. And that is coming from someone who is by no means a Bret fan. Vince screwed Bret contractually. It's not really a debatable point. From that screwing came the other screwing. You can't disconnect one from the other.

The only problem with that is that the only reason Bret was going to WCW in the first place was because Vince shit on the contract he signed with Bret. A contract where Bret took less short term money, for more long term security. At that point if Bret had taken the title to Nitro he would have been engaging in a righteous act against someone who essentially fucked him out of an agreed upon deal. Whether Bret would have taken the belt and thrown it in the trash (something I think is HIGHLY unlikely) is irrelevant. Vince would have been a hundred percent at fault no matter what had happened.

I forget which is which in the WON Awards, but I'm talking about the big picture and not the little picture (who was the best worker). The best worker to me is either Virus, Blue Panther or Punk.

Japanese wrestling is teh suck seems to be a near uniform opinion here. If someone could show me that any of the Japanese big names are draws of some magnitude or value I would have zero problem flying their flag even if I think they suck in the ring. Orton has had three good series with three very different opponents (Punk, Christian and Henry) but he also has the misfortune of being the "ace" of a brand that is drawing sub-TNA attendance figures. Cena is the default for a lot of people but he seems particularly stale this year and I'm not terribly sure that he is a draw in any meaningful sense when buyrates continue to shit the bed with him on top, ratings are going South, et.

I'm talking about picture sense here with drawing power, in ring, getting over angles, overall character, et. being taken into consideration. Offhand I really can't think of anyone. Can't think of anyone from Japan. Mexico doesn't appear to have any obvious candidate like they did last year with LA Park. Maybe Kris or Eric can bring me up to speed there as I watch a lot of Lucha but don't totally get who is getting a huge push. Maybe Averno is a contender but he really doesn't feel like it. WWE really doesn't feel like they have a strong contender either. Cena is the biggest star but hasn't really done anything of note business wise and while he's had his best in ring year since 07 he's still not been the best guy in the company. Punk is probably the best worker in the States (Virus and Blue Panther may be ahead of him in the picture) and got a lot of interest for himself for a month there but it didnt' sustain itself and the buyrates were disappointing (particularly SummerSlam). Mark Henry is the guy making the most out of his push, is arguably the best promo in the business, has had the best put together push and has had an awful lot of quality matches over the last couple of months, but he was off the radar for the first half of the year for the most part. Rey was great in the ring all year but didn't have a push that fit the bill and is done. Del Rio has been booked up and down, though he has improved in the ring a great deal. This will sound crazy to some people, but Jerry Lawler is someone I could see making a case for. He's been good both in the WWE and on the indy circuit. I don't know what sort of ratings and buyrates he drew when he was a big part of the shows, but the angle with Miz and Cole were consistently compelling and excluding the Mania match (which was arguably the most well built match on the show) all of the in ring stuff that came out of it was pretty good. He also probably drew the indy crowd of the year v. Dundee in Nashville and appears to have done good business on top in Louisville v. Dundee a couple of days later along with the return match with Brian v. The Dundees. I'd be interested to see what the Dreamer Cage Match and Funk match drew for NECW as those were clearly the most well promoted matches for those shows. Also of note that the angle he did with Henry worked really well and when they needed someone to get over the walkout concept they went to Jerry as the go to guy. Not saying he would be my pick, but I think it is kind of telling how weak the candidate list is when Lawler has a legit claim. The Rock helped figures a great deal IIRC in the build to Mania and if he works at Survivor Series and pops a buyrate you could almost argue that he deserves the Observer Award for Wrestler of The Year just based on that. I'm not about to make a case for anyone in TNA though I have found Bully Ray entertaining all year for whatever that is worth.

That's true and I personally have always suspected that Vince new he could run with himself as a some sort of tweener/heel in the aftermath and that it would have positive effect on his business.